Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact of their long-term funding settlement for the Canal & River Trust on the condition and safety of the canal network.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government recognises that canals provide many public benefits, including social value to people and communities. When the Canal and River Trust was set up in 2012 to replace British Waterways, the Government agreed to provide an annual grant over 15 years to provide a measure of financial stability while the Trust developed alternative income streams. This was on the clear understanding, set out in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Defra and the Trust at the time, that the Trust would progressively reduce reliance on Government grant funding. During this 15-year period the total value of the grant payments will be around £740 million. The Government also transferred a property portfolio, generating around £50 million per annum and now worth around £1 billion, to support their costs.
Following a comprehensive evidence-based review of the grant that included consideration of the public benefits provided by canals, and while there was no obligation to do so, the Government has agreed to provide the Trust with a further £400 million grant over ten years from 2027 to support their continued efforts towards providing public benefits and delivering a safe and resilient canal network. This is consistent with the original strategic intent for the Canal & River Trust to reduce dependence on taxpayer funding as an independent charity.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the application of existing animal welfare offences to content shared on or otherwise facilitated by regulated internet services.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Animal cruelty in England and Wales is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Similar legislation is in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Sentencing Council recently updated its sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The guidelines include ‘use of technology to record, publicise or promote cruelty’ as an aggravating factor for animal cruelty offences under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The guidelines specify that this includes circulating details/photographs/videos etc of the offence on social media. There is no central recording of the use of such factors in sentencing.
The number of prosecutions in England and Wales for animal cruelty offences under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 for the last three years for which we have full data is set out in the table below:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Prosecutions under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 | 1719 | 949 | 965 |
Depending on its nature, digital transmission of animal cruelty content may be an offence under different legislation, such as (but not exclusively) the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and the Communications Act 2007.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have been brought under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in each of the last three years, in relation to the creation or sharing of online content relating to animal welfare.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Animal cruelty in England and Wales is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Similar legislation is in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Sentencing Council recently updated its sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The guidelines include ‘use of technology to record, publicise or promote cruelty’ as an aggravating factor for animal cruelty offences under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The guidelines specify that this includes circulating details/photographs/videos etc of the offence on social media. There is no central recording of the use of such factors in sentencing.
The number of prosecutions in England and Wales for animal cruelty offences under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 for the last three years for which we have full data is set out in the table below:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Prosecutions under sections 4-8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 | 1719 | 949 | 965 |
Depending on its nature, digital transmission of animal cruelty content may be an offence under different legislation, such as (but not exclusively) the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and the Communications Act 2007.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether data shows that transmission of bovine tuberculosis is higher (1) from badgers to cattle, or (2) between cattle.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Several recent studies using whole genome sequencing data from Mycobacterium bovis isolates in cattle and badgers estimate that, in the UK, transmission of the bacterium occurs more frequently within the same host species (i.e. from cattle to cattle and from badger to badger), than between badgers and cattle. However, the relative rates of transmission between and within the two maintenance host species are not uniform across the country and can vary over time.
Even so, there is broad scientific consensus that badgers are implicated in the spread of TB to cattle. Professor Sir Charles Godfray’s independent review of the science published in 2018, which brought together leading UK experts, concluded that TB spreads within and between populations of badgers and cattle and that spread from badgers to cattle is an important cause of herd breakdowns in high-incidence areas.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of bovine tuberculosis reducing at the same rate in England and Wales, in the light of the absence of badger culling in Wales.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Defra publishes official national statistics on tuberculosis in cattle in Great Britain on a quarterly basis. The latest quarterly release of these national statistics was published on 14 June and contained data up to the end of March 2023. This is publicly available at GOV.UK. The releases do not include a direct comparison between the rates of change in England and Wales as TB control is a devolved policy. Defra regularly meets with colleagues responsible for TB control in Wales. These discussions include reviewing disease information and the sharing of experiences with respect to the different and multiple policy interventions deployed in the fight against this endemic disease.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress has been made in relation to a vaccine against bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Developing a vaccine against TB in cattle is one of the Government’s top priorities and will complement the already existing use of BadgerBCG.
Defra aims to have a deployable cattle TB vaccine (CattleBCG) in the next few years. In 2021, world-leading cattle TB vaccination field trials began as a result of a major breakthrough by Government scientists on the development of a new DIVA skin test to Detect Infected among Vaccinated Animals.
The UK is closer to being able to vaccinate cattle than we have ever been before, but there is still a lot of work to do. Final deployment will rely on the success of the ongoing field trials, achieving Marketing Authorisations from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (for both CattleBCG and the companion DIVA skin test), gaining international recognition for both products, an IT system to record and trace vaccinated cattle, and acceptance of vaccination from across the range of stakeholders.
A Government-industry collaborative working group has been established to co-design initial deployment policy proposals which will inform a public consultation.
Vaccinating cattle against bTB will be a valuable addition to the toolbox but will not replace existing control measures. Maintaining biosecurity measures on farm, avoiding risky movements of cattle and complying with testing protocols remain as important as ever in the fight against bovine TB.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of trends in the use of antibiotics across different food-producing animal species.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. In the UK, collaborative working between government, the veterinary profession and the agriculture sectors has resulted in a 55% reduction in the sales of antibiotics for food producing animals between 2014 and 2021 to the lowest levels ever recorded (28.3 mg/kg). This, and other trends are reported in the UK’s Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales Surveillance Report 2021. Since data was first published for each sector, veterinary antibiotic prescribing has reduced by 69% in the pig sector, 81% in the turkey sector, 72% in the broiler sector, 89% in the duck sector, 50% in the laying hen sector, 55% in the gamebird sector and 69% in the trout sector. These reductions throughout the livestock sectors demonstrate how antibiotic stewardship has become an important feature of UK farm management.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the operation of plastic packaging recycling services in supermarkets and other retail settings, and (2) whether the availability of such services is increasing or decreasing.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK Plastic Pact members have introduced more than 6,000 supermarket collection points across the UK, and the availability of these collection points is increasing.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their planned timescale for reviewing the recommendations contained in the Farm Animal Welfare Committee's Opinion on the Welfare of Farmed Fish at the Time of Killing, published in May 2014; and when they will make the recommendations publicly available.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We asked the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing and we will study their recommendations carefully to determine next steps.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce legislation to enhance protections for farmed fish at slaughter; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We published a comprehensive Action Plan for Animal Welfare in May 2021. In support of this work, we have asked the Animal Welfare Committee to update its 2014 Opinion on the welfare of farmed fish at the time of killing; recommendations are due shortly and we will study them carefully to determine next steps.